Sadegh Tirafkan, a contemporary photographer, was born in Iraq but immigrated to Iran with his family at age eight due to political pressure. His approach to the art of photography and his use of ancillary mediums and trans-photographic techniques have made him one of the conceptual artists.
Tirafkan began his artistic career in theater and cinema. During the Eight-Year War, he was active in the theater, performing in public places such as mosques and government institutions and making short films. The multimedia requirements and characteristics of theater and his experiences in writing, directing, and stage design had a decisive effect on the future of his photographic art. After moving to Tehran, he was admitted to the Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran, and in 1990 he completed his studies in photography.
His theatrical background revealed his influence from his university days, which made his work different from the academic body of photography. His artworks had theatrical aspects in the characters' narrative, their photographic positions, and the setting of the frames. But he was not content with the photograph as a medium for recording objective matters and sought to extend the picture from flat structures to multidimensional and spatial experiences by using patches or environmental art arrangements. Because of these differences, before Tirafkan's artworks succeeded in the international arena, the domestic art scene did not recognize his artworks. He has had various group and solo exhibitions in galleries around the world. Some of his artworks are also housed in prestigious art centers such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, the British Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran.
Ruyin Pakbaz writes about Tirafkan's artworks: "In the early 1990s, he showed a distinct style in his photographs. Masculinity, Iranian history, and religious and traditional rituals are among the dominant themes in his artworks, and the problem of masculinity is an essential aspect of his work. "Tirafkan cultivates these themes in his work by preparing the stage layout, Persian motifs, Persian letters, computer assembly, and photo arrangement."
The first appearance of Sadegh Tirafkan's artworks in the auctions dates back to October 2007 at the Artcurial Auction House. By September 2021, his artworks had appeared in 39 domestic and foreign auctions. And 72% of his artworks had been sold at international auctions. His most expensive work until 2021 was hammered at the Christie's Auction House for $ 37,000 on May 11, 2008.